Woman 47, fired after donating kidney to ailing boss.

A 47-year-old mother of two who donated her kidney help save her ailing boss's life has allegedly been fired after the woman 'got what she wanted'.

Debbie Stevens from Long Island, New York, offered her organ to her boss Jackie Brucia, 61, after she said she was struggling to find a donor.

Stevens has now filed a legal complaint at the Human Rights Commission in New York claiming that the woman used her and then fired her, the New York Post reported.

Stevens said: 'I feel very betrayed. This has been a very hurtful and horrible experience for me.

'She just took this gift and put it on the ground and kicked it.'

The divorced mother of two worked for Brucia at the billion-dollar Atlantic Automotive Group, which runs car dealerships in New York.

After two years working as a clerical worker, she left the company in June 2010 and moved to Florida - but returned for a visit a few months later.

During a conversation with Brucia, the boss discussed her health problems and 'her need for a kidney transplant', the complaint papers claim.

Stevens said that Brucia had found a possible donor - but she offered her own 'because she was naturally a kind and generous person'.

Brucia said: 'You never know, I may have to take you up on that offer one day,' the papers say, as reported in the Post.

When Stevens decided to return to Long Island soon after and asked Brucia for her job back, she agreed and was back within weeks.

Just two months later, Brucia approached her employee and said her donor had been denied and asked whether she would still be willing to donate her own kidney, Stevens said.

'She was my boss, I respected her,' Stevens told the Post. 'It's just who I am. I didn't want her to die.'

According to the papers, Brucia had been 'apparently grooming her to be her "backup plan".'

Even though Stevens did not prove to be a perfect match for her boss, she donated her kidney to a transplant group so that Brucia could get her organ from someone else in the group.


In August 2011, she underwent the surgery which floored her, leaving her with pain in her legs and digestive problems, she said.

She added that she felt pressurised to go back to work and could not cope after three days, so returned home, much to the annoyance of her boss.

‘You can't come and go as you please,' her boss allegedly said. 'People are going to think you're getting special treatment.'

Brucia allegedly began yelling at Stevens for her mistakes, before she was demoted to a dealership 50 miles from her home.

Her lawyers wrote a letter to the company and Stevens was promptly fired, according to the papers.

Brucia's husband James said the claims were 'far from the truth', but would not go into further details.

Stevens' lawyer, Lenard Leeds, said he will file a discrimination suit against the company and would seek millions of dollars in compensation.